Falls Count Anywhere

05-21-07

Turnabout is fair play.

SmackDown! briefly
I enjoyed SmackDown! as a brief period of rest. It was a decent show, nothing to write home about. There was a really strong Matt Hardy vs. MVP match which is a part of the eye-opening push of MVP. I mean, here’s Matt Hardy, the man no de-pushing can destroy, having a good match with a guy who I never expect good matches from, but who has been giving us really strong matches. It’s impressive. Other than that match, and getting to see the Mini-Boogeyman who is almost as into his gimmick as the real one, I sorta let it all slide over and out of me. These things happen.

NEWS
In sad news, ECW just got a lot less hot. Ariel was one of the most recent folks who got the boot. I’d expect her to end up in TNA any day now. She’s superhot and I really think with the right push she’s something special. That said, I wouldn’t expect her to get the right push in TNA. Also let go were Scotty 2 Hotty and Nick from the Spirit Squad. Ariel is the big loss there.

Gregory Helms has a broken neck and will be getting the surgery that’ll keep him out for a year. He had cooled off from the hot streak he was on a few months ago and now’s probably a good time for him to sit out.

Shawn Michaels blew out his knee and he’ll be getting surgery. There’s a massive blow to the WWE. He has carried the RAW side when it comes to workrate for months now. With HHH coming back soon, we’ll probably have a long series of bouts between him and Orton or Cena to give the workrate nuts like me good coverage. I think they’re very happy they’ve brought everyone together for every PPV.

Judgment Day
You know what, I thought Judgment Day was a pretty good episode of RAW, but just below what I’ve been enjoying for recent PPVs. The incredible thing is they told more long-term story on this show than they have on any free tv show since before Mania. That’s an interesting twist. Some of it was due to injuries and some was due to McMahon ego, and it was an enjoyable show, but not for a PPV price tag…though well worth finding through other methods, if you do that sort of thing. (Chris, this is how you got cursed by Harlan Ellison -- editor).

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing....

We got Ric Flair vs. Carlito. Dave Meltzer always complains that they never give Ric Flair mic time nowadays. That’s true, but when he delivers like this in the ring and is as over as he was on Sunday, you kinda forgive it. This was the best Flair match since his matches with Edge. Carlito seems to have gotten some fire back. He worked on Flair’s arm, including doing the classic Anderson move of stomping the arm when it was in a hammerlock.

The match featured a lot of chopping, which is always fun to watch. Flair eventually got the chop block and started working the leg to lead to the Figure Four and the clean win. I think Carlito is a much better heel than he is a face and he’s getting a chance to show it in a fifteen minute match with Flair to open a PPV. I hope it’ll continue.

The first match that was all long-term booking and no crowd appeal was Bobby Lashley beating Mr. McMahon, Shane and Umaga. This was a fast match, less than 2 minutes if I was counting correctly. Lashley powerslammed Shane to win the match, but Vince got on the mic and said since he didn’t pin him that Mr. McMahon was still the champ. A big heel move, true, but it really was the kind of thing that they should have been doing on RAW (or ECW if they didn’t care how many people watched it) and not on PPV.

They did a storyline throughout the show about Shawn getting hurt and they didn’t want him to wrestle Randy Orton. It’s a good idea to do that previous to the PPV, but I understand that the injury happened after the last TV taping. You know it’s bad when Shawn can’t tough it out and wrestle a real match. Remember when he had a fantastic match with Stone Cold after he had injured his back against Undertaker two months before?

In a long match, CM Punk beat Elijah Burke. It was a good match, the kind I like, but it had little crowd heat and probably did go a little too long. Punk used the Go2Sleep, which is still a hot finisher, to get the pin. This match went seventeen minutes and was a good showing for Burke, though they were a little sloppy. Punk used the Elbow Suicida, which is a move we don’t see enough of in the US…except for when Samoa Joe is feeling like he should put on a big match, which has been far too seldom lately.

Burke and Punk are probably both best at ten to twelve minutes. I know Punk had a couple of classic sixty minute bouts with Samoa Joe (and some long brawls with Raven), but he really pops shorter. Of course, they’ve booked him to take away his heat, but what are you gonna do?

Kristal interviewed Edge. It was a decent promo, but still, unless they needed to buy time, it wasn’t necessary.

Nice pants.

Randy Orton came out and demanded that they announce him the winner of his match with Michaels due to forfeit. That’s good old-fashioned heel right there. Shawn came out and the ref said he didn’t have to fight, but Shawn insisted. This would have worked better if they hadn’t done the Kennedy angle a couple of weeks ago. Orton beat him up, even using his Spike DDT, and then Shawn got the advantage with the rake of the eyes. A great move stolen from Ric Flair. Shawn kept the advantage through an Elbow off the top and then went for the Sweet Chin Music. He collapsed.

That was an interesting way to tell the story, but on a PPV I’m not sure it was smart. They might have done the injury bit to replace Michaels with someone who could use the push and then had Michaels insist on doing the match on Monday night leading to the same angle, but no. They did no such thing. A four minute match on PPV is a lot more disappointing than a four minute match on RAW.

Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch took on The Hardys in a good little match that went fifteen minutes. They’re giving matches more time, which means there are fewer wrestlers on the shows, which means there’s less PPV pay-offs to go around which means there’s higher disgruntlism in the locker room, which leads to lesser match quality on non-PPVs from the guys underneath. Or at least that’s the theory.The guys who do get the PPV time usually perform really well, and this was a good one. The Hardys actually didn’t control the pace of the match, which meant they could go longer. It still ended with the Swanton for the Hardy win.

Edge vs. Batista wasn’t a terrible good match. Edge did everything he could, but they repeated a finish! They had Batista’s knee give out while trying to give a Spinebuster and that allowed Edge to get the pin. That’s not a good idea at all, though it was brought about by Edge’s working on the knee (including a spinning toe hold!). They need to freshen up finishes, which is a great idea over all. They got less than ten minutes too, which says something about the confidence they don’t have in Batista even when working with the WWE’s hottest worker.

Sadly, Chris Benoit is slowing down a bit. Still he had a decent enough match with MVP, but it’s not one of those classics we’re so used to. In 2 of 3 falls, MVP took two straight. That’s ad thing if they’re planning on doing two-of-threes again because it does give the second fall a bit of heat potential. The match was slightly sloppy, but mostly it was a serviceable match of better than average quality. The MVP face kicks are awesome. The was they played the counter and counter-counter game was good too. If MVP becomes something important, and there are lots of people in charge who are high on him, it’s likely that Chris Benoit will be the one to thank.

You wanna know something? Cena vs. Khali was not the worst match of the night. Cena, working with less than nothing, did a good job giving us an OK match. The basic match was Khali did damage, Cena came back using simple offense and the steps, but then Cena got a submission win. That I did not expect. Cena has grown so much and I really think he had a lot to do with the way this match flowed. It was a good story for Cena, overcoming the size difference to win with an STFU. I think they left things open for one more main event where Cena will get to show off and actually give Khali the FU, which is really the only reason to have them wrestle.

It was a great episode of RAW, but much like the Benoit match, a merely slightly better than average PPV.

I’ll be back Thursday and then I’m skipping next Monday due to BayCon. Power through!

(Catch many of the Fanboy Planeteers at BayCon.)

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Chris Garcia